‘Doctor X’ faces backlash after tackling May 18: Petition to suspend broadcast followed by complaint alleging Road Act violation

[Financial News] SBS’s Friday-Saturday drama ‘Doctor X: The Age of the White Mafia’ has become embroiled in controversy after addressing the suffering of victims of the May 18 Democratization Movement. While some praised the show for shedding light on a historical tragedy and survivors’ trauma, some viewers called for it to be taken off the air, saying it had forced political subject matter into a medical drama. A complaint was also filed asking authorities to investigate whether a fictional bus-stop sign installed for filming violated the Road Act.

The controversy centers on episode 6, which aired on the 24th. The episode portrayed the story of Oh Sang-beom (played by Ha Seong-gwang), who was shot in the head in Gwangju in May 1980 and lived with a bullet fragment for 46 years.
Oh Sang-beom was 12 at the time. He lost his older brother to gunfire from martial law troops and was also wounded in the head. He later lived with headaches, seizures and hallucinations, as well as guilt and longing for his brother, whose body he had never even been able to find. He was portrayed as refusing surgery for fear that he would no longer be able to see his brother, who appeared to him as an apparition.
The genius surgeon Gye Su-jeong (played by Kim Ji-won) heads to Gwangju to meet Oh Sang-beom in person. The episode also featured a scene in which Oh takes bus No. 518 to the May 18th National Cemetery, as well as accounts of the atrocities suffered by citizens at the time, the violence of martial law troops and helicopter fire. Bus No. 518 is an actual city bus route in Gwangju that passes the May 18th National Cemetery. It links 14 of the 30 May 18 historic sites in the city, including the cemetery, Chonnam National University, Gwangju Station, the area around the former provincial government building, Geumnam-ro and the former site of Sangmu-dae.
In the latter part of the drama, the fictional former president Ji Du-seok, who collapses in a golf course sauna, is flown to a hospital unconscious. Oh Sang-beom, who happens to be on the rooftop, witnesses this, setting up a dramatic encounter at the same hospital between a victim and a perpetrator of state violence.
Viewers’ reactions were divided after the episode aired. Some praised it, saying, “It vividly showed the suffering endured by victims of May 18 and their families” and “It meaningfully connected a survivor’s trauma with a medical narrative.” Others criticized it, saying, “It abruptly inserted political elements that were not in the Japanese original” and asking, “Did it use a historical event as a dramatic device?”

A viewer posted a petition titled “Petition to Suspend the SBS Drama Doctor X” on the National Assembly Public Petition with Citizen Consent System. The petitioner said that content related to May 18, unrelated to the drama’s main storyline, had been included, and called for a review of the production process and the broadcast to be halted. An online fan community also issued a statement demanding that the production team explain why it featured May 18 and a fictional former president, and what role those elements played in the medical narrative.
Meanwhile, on the day the episode aired, Lee Ok-gyu, an executive producer (CP) at Studio S, drew attention by posting the drama’s poster on social media alongside the words “No fear” (“no fear”). Some interpreted this as a sign that Lee would not back down despite the controversy surrounding the episode, but Lee did not explain the specific meaning of the phrase.
Today (the 27th), a complaint was also filed concerning a bus-stop sign installed for filming and shown in the drama. A complainant said they had submitted a report through e-People to the Buk-gu Office of Jeonnam-Gwangju Special City, asking it to determine whether installing a fictional “National May 18 Cemetery Stop” sign in front of the Gate of Democracy at the May 18th National Cemetery amounted to unauthorized placement of an object or occupation of a road under the Road Act.
The complainant said, “I did not raise the issue because the drama dealt with the May 18 Democratization Movement. The issue is the act of installing a freestanding structure in a specific location for filming and the administrative procedures involved,” and asked for an investigation into whether a road-occupancy permit or site-use approval had been obtained before filming, and whether installing the structure affected pedestrian or vehicle traffic.
Despite the controversy, episode 6 set a new ratings record for the drama, recording 19.5% nationwide and a peak of 21.3%.  
[email protected] Shin Jin-a Reporter